The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has filed a case against Colombia in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for failing to provide justice and protection for journalist Luís Gonzalo “Richard” Vélez Restrepo, who was attacked by soldiers in 1996, while filming farmers protesting the destruction of coca crops. See reports in English by the IACHR and Colombia Reports.
Nine years after the assassination of the deputy editor of La Patria newspaper, Orlando Sierra, two influential Colombian politicians from the interior were accused of being the masterminds of his killing, and they were ordered imprisoned to prevent them from fleeing, RCN Radio reports.
Latin America is missing profitable opportunities to conserve its forests because bureaucracy and excessive paperwork are tying up the process, an 11-country investigation by 18 reporters in the region concludes. The report on carbon emissions trading presents the first product of a new collective investigative reporting project led by Latin American journalists.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) reports that it has received a copy of a new set of threats against journalists and human rights activists in Colombia from the Black Eagles paramilitary group, which for the last five years has engaged in acts of violence and intimidation against the press.
A journalist and a cameraman for the news show CM& on Colombia’s TV Canal 1 were attacked with rocks and sticks by people living in a mining zone in northeastern Colombia, while seeking interviews with locals about a Canadian mining company's decision to postpone a project, El Tiempo reports.
A judge absolved Colombian journalist Claudia López of libel, after accusations leveled against her by ex-President Ernesto Samper (1994-98) prompted by a column in which she suggested Samper was involved in a pair of homicides, reported RCN Radio.
In a climate of increasing hostility to freedom of expression in Colombia, five journalists received death threats from a paramilitary group, which warned that the time had arrived to “exterminate and annihilate all those people and organizations that pose as human rights defenders,” La Vanguardia and El País Vallenato report.
Magangué Hoy reports that a homemade bomb was thrown at one of its journalist’s house in the northern Colombian city of Magangué. No one was injured in the attack.
Ten people in Colombia, including three journalists, have been threatened in a pamphlet allegedly signed by the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FLIP in Spanish), which condemned the death threats.
Seven journalists were killed in Colombia in 2010, and total attacks on the media were almost double the number that occurred over the previous four years combined, says the annual report of the Colombian Federation of Journalists (Fecolper).
Colombian journalist Claudia López refused to retract her statements and declared her innocence at her trial for allegedly defaming ex-President Ernesto Samper, El País and Caracol Radio report.
Colombian journalist Daniel Coronell, who faced off against former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, was named the vice president of news for the U.S. Spanish-language television station Univisión, reported EFE and Vanguardia on Jan. 21.